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Ending HIV/AIDS: A Global Youth Strategy

As a Senior Vice President at M·A·C and Global Executive Director of the M·A·C AIDS Fund, Nancy serves as a member of the brand’s senior management team reporting to John Demsey, Group President, Estee Lauder Companies while overseeing the strategic direction and day-to-day operation of the M·A·C AIDS Fund. Under Nancy’s leadership, the Fund has further refined and enhanced its giving, taking on larger grant initiatives including the Caribbean Initiative, while at the same time continuing to fund the grassroots service-based charities that the Fund has supported in the past. Currently, the Fund gives away over $38 million annually throughout the world, particularly in the 72 countries in which M·A·C has affiliates. Nancy also oversees the corporate citizenship and cause related marketing for Bobbi Brown, La Mer and Jo Malone.

In December 2011, Nancy was appointed as the Chair of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA). PACHA provides advice and recommendations to the President and the Secretary of Health and Human Services on programs and policies intended to promote effective prevention of HIV disease, and to advance research on HIV disease and AIDS.

Prior to joining M·A·C in June 2006, Nancy was Executive Director of God’s Love We Deliver (GLWD), the nation’s oldest and largest provider of life-sustaining nutritional support services for people living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other serious illnesses. Under Nancy’s leadership, GLWD expanded its mission, doubled its client numbers to over 1,600 people per day and undertook numerous local and national public relations and advocacy campaigns.

Nancy is the author of numerous research, advocacy, and prevention articles, which have been published in a wide range of periodicals, including the American Journal of Public Health, The New York Times, and various academic journals. She has also made numerous media appearances in an array of outlets, including National Public Radio, BBC, Vanity Fair, and The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Time.com, Washington Post, Women’s Wear Daily, CBS News, and Fox 5. She has also presented research papers and spoken at academic conferences, such as the White House, the United Nations, NYU Center for Global Studies, Center to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy, Harvard Business School, the American Society of Law and Medicine, UC Berkeley Haas Business School, and the Council on Foundations. Nancy is also a frequent blogger for the Huffington Post and the Harvard Business Review.

Before joining GLWD, Nancy was a senior program director at George Soros’s foundation, The Open Society Institute (OSI). At OSI, she was a grant maker, directing over $13 million each year to criminal justice and public health causes.

Nancy is a magna cum laude graduate of Yale University and New York University’s School of Law, where she was an editor of the Law Review. She and her partner reside in New York City with their two children.

M·A·C AIDS Fund’s mission is to serve people of all ages, all races and all sexes affected by HIV and AIDS. MAF partners with the bold, the visionary and the brave who confront the epidemic in countries and communities where people are most neglected, off the radar and at highest risk. Responsive, agile and alert, MAF funds innovative programs that deal directly with the most marginalized, stigmatized and under-heard victims. Every cent of the selling price of MAC VIVA GLAM lipstick and lipglass is donated to the M·A·C AIDS Fund.

First, the good news. This year, there have been several high profile, exciting developments in the fight to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic, developments that offer tangible hope that we’re closer than ever. The bad news is that actually achieving an end continues to be an incredibly complex and elusive challenge, one increasingly dependent on engaging hard-to-reach, often marginalized, populations in communities around the world.

Lately we’ve been thinking a lot about those hard to reach audiences, in particular youth and adolescents; a crucial group to reach that has become even more central to the issue over the past decade. Globally, 5.4 million1 adolescents and young people between the ages of 10 and 24 are living with HIV and are the only age group in which AIDS deaths rose between 2001 and 2012. It adds up to one of the most underserved, vulnerable populations to HIV/AIDS, often lacking the resources and ability to get tested for HIV, receive and maintain much-needed medical care and counselling and more.

It also adds up to a pressing need to develop a new playbook, one specifically tailored to reach youth in a meaningful and surprising way. It’s an audience that has grown alarmingly immune to HIV/AIDS messaging, an audience that consumes information in an entirely different way. To that end, at the M·A·C AIDS Fund we are uniquely positioned to execute a global youth strategy, calling on some of the biggest stars and brightest minds in the world to help influence an entire generation. Now is the time to do just that, to reverse the trend and speed up the pace to zero.

At its core, our global youth strategy is working to address three key areas, which include reach and fundraising, message and medium and on the ground support and leadership:

REACH AND FUNDRAISING – RIHANNA: Global superstar Rihanna is lending her celebrity to raise funds with her new VIVA GLAM lipstick and lipglass to help men, women and children affected by HIV/AIDS and reach youth globally with an important message. As always, 100 percent of the sale price of VIVA GLAM products goes to the M·A·C AIDS Fund, making Rihanna’s reach translate directly to fundraising. Rihanna has been hugely successful in raising the volume of our VIVA GLAM program, advocating with a distinct voice that cuts through the clutter and has made an imediate impact on the Fund’s charitable giving, which has surpassed $325 million dollars in total.

MESSAGE AND MEDIUM – ANDREW JENKS: We need powerful content to reach this audience. We looked for a storyteller that speaks to youth and adolescent with integrity and strength, and we found documentary filmmaker, Andrew Jenks. We’ve engaged his support with the goal of doing one thing – show youth that AIDS matters and why. He has filmed a documentary featuring young people impacted by HIV/AIDS from around the globe, slated for release in September 2014.This content will be fundamental in changing attitudes and behaviors, thanks to an authentic and honest approach to the subject matter.

ON THE GROUND SUPPORT – UNAIDS: Our funding is centralized around high-impact, proven models expressly designed to eliminate HIV transmissions to children and make HIV treatment for children and adolescents a priority. UNAIDS is the best organization in the world to deliver on this purpose. We are helping UNAIDS expand its Treatment 2015 initiative to reach 15 million adults and young people with HIV treatment by 2015. Treatment 2015 is UNAIDS’ framework to expedite and greatly expand coverage treatment to those living with HIV/AIDS. Specifically, our $2 million dollar grant will support UNAIDS’ work around testing and treatment for youth in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean.

Though these strategies and tactics represent only a portion of our plan, they play a powerful role in helping us continue our work to end this epidemic. Through aggressive funding, strategic leadership and innovative marketing, we’ve got our eye on youth this year and are ready to get their attention and make an impact. It’s amazing what a little lipstick and a lot of experience can do.